Judicial Sensitivity In Sexual Offence Cases: The Supreme Court’s 2026 Guidelines

Introduction

In a landmark intervention aimed at restoring dignity to survivors and recalibrating courtroom culture, the Supreme Court of India, in July-August 2026, approved and mandated a comprehensive handbook on “Judgements and Gender (Sensitivity and Compassion in Writing Judgments)¹” (hereinafter referred to as Handbook) for all courts, police and prosecution agencies. The Guidelines prepared by an Expert Committee of the National Judicial Academy (hereinafter referred to as NJA) under former Supreme Court Justice Aniruddha Bose, replace patriarchal, moralistic and stereotypical language with survivor-centric, trauma-informed practices across FIR registration, trial management, cross examination and judgement writing.